What term describes a gradual erosion of ethical standards due to repeated minor violations?

• A. Role Conflict
• B. Social Contract
• C. Ethical Drift
• D. Ethical Leadership

Answer: (C)

Ethical drift is the gradual erosion of ethical standards as small violations accumulate and become normalized within a culture or by an individual. It happens when people rationalize minor deviations as harmless or necessary to meet pressures, and over time those micro-processes shift what is tolerated. In practice, a department or organization may start with tiny shortcuts—like bending a rule in a routine case or skimming a detail in paperwork—and, because norms gradually shift and oversight is weak, those behaviors become more accepted and increasingly frequent. The danger is that there isn’t one dramatic breach, but a slow, cumulative change that lowers the standard of integrity.

This concept contrasts with role conflict, which is about competing duties from different identities or obligations; social contract, which concerns the implicit rules governing behavior in society; and ethical leadership, which focuses on leaders modeling and enforcing ethical behavior. Ethical drift specifically captures the gradual process of normalizing smaller ethical compromises over time.